When Andre Iguodala provides recommendation, the smart factor to do is pay attention.
Warriors heart Kevon Looney discovered that the arduous means early in his NBA profession relating to his diet and the sorts of meals he was once consuming.
“Yeah, the first day, I don’t even think he said ‘hello,’ ” Looney instructed NBC Sports Bay Area’s Warriors insider Monte Poole in September. “He stopped and appeared on the plate of meals I used to be consuming. My first yr I wasn’t seeking to pay attention that a lot, [I was] like, ‘Man, go on, I’ve been consuming like this my entire existence and I’m right here.’
“But after a season in, I discovered he was once proper and I want to pay attention to him on the whole lot.”
Looney was once drafted No. 30 within the 2015 NBA Draft as a 19-year-old with faculty pupil consuming conduct. He stated he persisted consuming fried meals or even at crew dinners, he would go on “fancy steaks” for hen tenders.
However, the then-31-year-old Iguodala was once now not having it.
“He’s like, ‘Man, you got to grow up at some point,'” Looney remembered. “One day I had some apple juice and he is telling me what number of grams of sugar and I’m like, ‘Bro it’s apple juice, everyone beverages apple juice.’
“But he was right.”
Now, as he enters his 7th yr within the league, that teenage diet is far prior to now. The 27-year-old now has a private chef and talked in regards to the significance of a wholesome diet.
“It means a lot for me. Our body is how we make our money so being healthy is the key to a long career and that’s what you want to do: play as long as possible,” Looney stated. “Make as a lot cash as you’ll in your circle of relatives. And hanging the correct issues to your frame is what can get you via an extended season.
“Having a chef and a person who knows your body really well, coming into the league, I didn’t really know it was that serious … there’s really a science to it and you got to go the extra mile for yourself.”
Looney unquestionably has long gone the additional mile since being that youngster yearning hen tenders. He’s now a three-time NBA champion and has evolved into a unique chief for this crew.
That, too, is in part due to Iguodala, who has served as Looney’s mentor for extra than simply his nutritional wishes.
RELATED: Kerr: Dubs to depend on intensity as starters play restricted mins
“He’s been huge. He’s been my vet and my mentor since I’ve been in the NBA,” Looney stated. “I discovered learn how to lead and communicate to the brand new guys coming in as a result of I discovered from him so I more or less simply percentage his wisdom that he gave me with the brand new guys coming in. He’s been large in my profession.
“He’s teaching me how to be a professional on and off the court. Showing me how to work. Showing me how to be a good teammate. Going over the game, I pride myself in having a good IQ and learning from him and learning how he sees the game, what he thinks on defense and the angles he uses and how he uses his hands. Just all the small things that people don’t really know that go into the game of basketball, he knows and he’s been teaching it.”
And similar to along with his bad consuming conduct, Looney stated Iguodala will at all times stay it actual with him.
“He will talk to anybody who will come up and listen,” Looney stated. “He’s now not a kind of guys who will conceal the data. He’s open and he’ll inform you the reality as smartly. I do know after I come to him, he’s now not simply going to sugarcoat it or simply deceive me as a result of I’m his pal. He’s going to stay it fair. He’s going to inform me what I’m doing incorrect, what I’m doing just right.
“And when you have somebody like that in your corner, it’s amazing.”
Download and practice the Dubs Talk Podcast